Customer Reviews

Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Vishnevskaya, Gedda, Petrov, LPO, Rostropovich

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Out of all the operas written in 20th century, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" certainly stands out as being the richest in melodies and bravest in expression. It is truly the work of Genius. Shostakovich put all the power of his glorious talent for musical character sketching behind this work. In 1934 Dmitri Dmitrievich was reaching his prime, he was idealistic, and not yet taken through the years of communist punishment. In her autobiography "Galina", the singer explains that at the time the composer was also madly in love with his first wife. As a result, Katerina has some of the most beautiful music he had ever written. The men in the opera, by contrast, have the most brutal, alarming, and dark music. All the music carries shades of folksongs, but it's generous, expansive, and flowing for Katerina, and often syncopated, broken, harsh for the men. You can't help liking "Lady Macbeth" and feeling sorry for her. The opera is recorded with the great cast, but the two shining stars here are the incredible husband and wife team of Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich. Both great admirers, friends, and, in a way, pupils of the composer, exiles at the time of this recording, they put a personal touch to this opera, unmatched on record. The legendary prima donna of Bolshoi, Galina Vishnevskaya is her best here. Her immense voice adapts easily to extraordinary high demands of the role, from tender heartwarming pianissimos to powerful but always clear fff. When it comes to subtleties and vivid characterization, she has no equal. Plus, Katerina is one of her favorite roles, she has starred in the movie "Katerina Ismailova", and no matter how many recordings and productions of this opera you might see, you won't find anything to remotely resemble her performance. The greatest cellist of our time Mstislav Rostropovich proves once again that remarkable instrumentalists can make extraordinary conductors. He revels in passion, beauty, and intricacy of the score, always maintaining cohesiveness in the orchestra and warmth and fullness of sound. The interlude following the death of Boris serves as a great example when rather than the finality if death the listener feels the terror of things to come. In Nicolai Gedda's experienced hands, Sergei comes through just as the composer wanted us to see him - a shallow, weak, cowardly and indulgent man, not worthy of Katerina's love. When in scene five he says, "I wanted to declare you my wife before God" we know: he is lying! Under his reassuring that he is a man of culture and understands what love is, there is only a villager who happened to be at the right place at the right time to offer Katerina a mere substitute for what she wanted a great love to be, only to abandon her when he has nothing more to gain. Bulgarian bass Dimiter Petkov offers a very vivid portrayal of lusty old (but still strong) man. His Mephistophelean laugh and later - his ghostly appearance sang on very low echoing notes make him the ultimate bad guy. Loved the policemen! What a fantastic picture of "law-and-order" in Russia, still true these days. EMI offers very clear and well-balanced sound (which was, probably, extremely difficult to accomplish), a nice booklet graced by a picture of beautiful Galina Vishnevskaya, and good liner notes. I would love to have Cyrillic texts, but the phonetic spelling is done correctly. An absolutely fantastic set, the best tribute to Shostakovich!

Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest opera recordings of the twentieth century! The opera itself, here restored to its original form -after metamorphosing into 'Katerina Izmailova', the original libretto (and score) hidden from the world for thirty years- is one of the masterful achievments of Shostakovich's life. Rostropovich has assured himself a high place in the pantheon of artists who have rendered incontestable service to mankind by this recording. Katerina's aria which opens the opera is a remarkable piece of theatre in and of itself, not to mention a perfect preamble of what is to come, and is radiantly sung by Vishnevskaya in full command of her extraordinary gifts, every nuance intact, her intimacy with the role apparent from the outset. The blood of this score is so entirely Russian, and so clearly purchased with that particular life-sacrificing art peculiar to the Russian humanist aesthetic, that its musical language reveals itself straightaway as an organic part of the glorious continuum of Russian art, one of the reasons of course that Stalin chose it to forge his hammer against everything truly Russian. The political history of this work of art, fascinating though it is, yet remains an ignoble and indeed unimportant footnote beside the lasting triumph of this particular opera. Nicolai Gedda here demonstrates why he is a legendary tenor- Sergey's grief, and what remains of his inner life are wrought like gold at every turn; it is a performance of towering artistry and unparalleled beauty. The London Symphony is shocking in its perfection, heated by Rostropovich's mystical gifts and pouring itself out like a Russian lover. Others more learned and capable than I have written far more lucidly than I could hope to in praise of this eternal work of art, yet I wish to call out the majesty of this masterpiece, encourage others to purchase it, make it their own, and thereby give homage to a genuinely rare human experience bequeathed to the world by Shostakovich, here restored to its preeminent place by the irreplaceable artists and collaborators who have understood what this work means to humankind, especially in an age of unbelief.

EMI has remastered this enduring classic on its "Great Recordings of the Century" line, and it is available. Here's the ID number for finding it on Amazon, or just do a search for Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk:

B000063UM3

Along with the great Mozart operas, Russian opera is where my passion lies. Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Glinka and Prokofiev- all great composers who wrote astounding operas that are too often neglected in the west, with perhaps the exception of Moussorgsky's 'Boris Godounov' and Tchaikovsky's 'Pique Dame' and 'Eugene Onegin.'

What I love about Russian opera is it's not only Grand opera at its best, its history. The operas of Moussorgsky, Rimsky, Prokofiev, Borodin, Glinka, and Tchaikovsky (Mazeppa) are based on Russian history- they are truth. There's also the grand score, chorus', massive casts...Russian opera has it all...

Well I was suprised to find Shostakovich wrote opera. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk came highly recommended and because of my love of Russian opera, I purchased it.

At this point I want to say I entirely loath modern opera. So I stop on my walk home and pick up Lady Macbeth. (A friend wanted to purchase it too but I went to the only store that had it a store he didn't know about and I didn't tell him about as he got off work before me. Evil? I know- but it was my idea to get it first). Well after listening to the first act, I HATED IT! HUGELY! It was too modern and did not contain a huge amount of chorus and it was not based on Russian history. I immediately emailed my friend saying I hate it and he is welcome to buy it from me....I tend to be premature with things. Nothing is given a chance to grow on me, it makes and almost immediate impact or it isn't given much of a chance to do so.

Well after listening to the whole thing I was completely KNOCKED OUT! This opera is musically and dramatically utterly amazing. Pushing the gate Lady Macbeth has climbed my ranks and falls behind Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflote as my top favorite operas.

The score of Lady Macbeth is fast and loud in many parts and softly beautiful in others. The story is awesome; sex, adultery, murder, rape, poison, siberia, suicide, hauntings...what a story.

In the first act we meet Katerina. A bored housewife who cannot read. She is kept after by her father-in-law Boris, while her husband is frequently away. She meets Sergey and quickly the two are lovers. Boris catches them together and beats Sergey...then demands that Katerina bring him dinner. She poisons his mushrooms and Boris dies.

The end of Act Two is quite a treat. First the Ghost of Boris appears before her cursing her, then Zinoviy (her husband) comes home, catches her in bed with her lover, beats her, then is strangled by her and Sergey (her lover). Caught, Katerina and Sergey are exported to a prison camp in Siberia. There, Sergey leaves Katerina for Sonyetka. Sergey and Sonyetka mock Katerina. Well she has had it.... in the operas closing pages Katerina throws herself to her death in the freezing Volga river...but before she jumps she grabs Sonyetka and drags her down with her. Lastly, the opera challanges your morals. Do you really think under any circumstance murder is justifyable? I don't. I think she's nuts. My friend doesn't. He views Katerina as a heroine on the scale of Boheme's Mimi. You see Katerina is a prisoner at the hands of her husband and father-in-law... in short, she's bored with life. Well, she certainly found ways to make it unboring!

Truly a GREAT story with a firey score that is quite awesome...modern yet very melodic and it keeps well with Russian traditions while being bold, inspiring and inventive.

Cast wise this recording is simply phenomenal. Katarina is a HUGE role. She is literally barely NOT on stage. Galina Vishnevskaya is simply sensational... this woman KNOCKS YOUR SOCKS OFF with the power of her voice! When she reacts to seeing Boris' ghost- GOOSE BUMP CITY! The duet with his ghost immediately following is awesome as well. There is not a dull momemt here. Gedda is astounding as Sergey....as usual. The whole cast is brilliant, the conducting is brilliant, and the London Philharmonic will BLOW YOUR FRONT DOOR DOWN with it's power in much of the score! Nothing like putting this one in your discman, walking, and blowing your ear drums out...! I am serious- it gets so loud at points and I LOVE IT!

I cannot recommend this opera enough...It is an essential recording whether you are a fan of Russian opera or not. It is simply sensational... I could go on and on and on about this opera, and did!

A shear triumph...perhaps the greatest not well known gem out there. GET IT!

These three great operas form the pinnacle of acheivement on the musical stage in the 20th Century.

In a word- this music is astonishing. The reocrding- amazing. The conducting- inspired. Probably it is Rostropovich's supreme accomplishment on record. Even the London Philharmonic Orchestra is full of life, vibrant, with horns blasting and strings digging into the music with the Mahler-like intesity found in their recordings with Tennstedt. Gedda moreover, displays the incredible range of his tenor voice- from gravely and bass (on par with Dmitri Petrov) to heady and youthful, his voice never flags, his conviction never in question.

I would pick on all the superlatives thrown in by the other reviewers, all 6 of whom have given it a 5-star rating, and say it is also of my experience. I have sat with this CD every evening for the past 6 days (since getting it) still unable to absorb the rapturous beauty of the music of this great recording, one of the best of my more-than-100 operas on disk and tape.

My contribution to the newcomer to this music would be to see a DVD of the opera - there is indeed a disk with the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina, the principal character, so that the story doesnt intrude too much into the appreciation of the overarching score. To my mind the music soars above the voices of Russia below. There are so many mind-blowing climaxes and the musical remains at all times lyrical. Buy it without a second thought!

It is a big chance if you can get an new CD, even if the emission of this CD lays several years back. That's why I like the possibility to buy such CDs over AMAZON.

As a relative newcomer to classical music I knew very little about Dmitri Shostakvich beyond his name, and even less about opera as such, when I learned about 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' and determined that I had to have this recording of it, along with recordings of his Symphony No. 10 and his Symphony No. 5, at least. Of these I have von Karajan's and Jārvi's respectively. The former symphony was composed in the summer and fall of 1953, the year of Stalin's death, whose death on March 5, 1953, must have given Shostakovich much cause for celebration because symphony number 10 was and is said to contain a musical portrait of Stalin in the second movement. And, for all the world, this scherzo does appears to be that, really, especially since it is that violent and brutal, although the symphony concludes with considerable satisfaction and more happily because, in fact, Stalin, who had persecuted Shostakovich horribly, repeatedly, and prolongedly, for years, including as to this opera, was finally dead several months before Shostakovch began to compose this work. The latter, Symphony No. 5, was completed in 1937 and is a different matter entirely, in that it was called by a commentator "a Soviet artist's response to just criticism" (as to this opera) and concludes very differently. For anyone who still regards any of these works as "politically controversial", whatever that is supposed to mean, I personally have to add that, as I understand the foregoing remark AND Symphony No. 5, OF COURSE THE CRITICISM WASN'T JUST, COULD NOT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN UNDERSTOOD TO BE JUST, NOR WAS IT REALLY ACCEPTED AS JUST BY THE COMPOSER (NOR SHOULD IT HAVE BEEN). By now, I have the Rostropovich recording of Symphony No. 8, too, which I also play regularly and often, on my CD player, which never fails me. All these recordings are available at this site and I recommend them along with this one of this opera. Others do better at dicussing it than I; I would just like to say that of course it's terrific. I am glad that this recording of this opera is available here, and that it has finally seen the light of day in this, its original form, so that we can all hear it. Highly recommended.